Posts Tagged ‘Edmund McMillen’

Bits and pieces of genetically modified cats have been spilling out of Team Meat’s web-gullet for a few months now but the most recent hairball of information catapulted onto the blog contains the clearest description of the game to date. It’s a “Cat Lady Sim”, with a cut-away of a house crawling with felines, each of which has a unique appearance, set of stats and personality. I’d imagine quite a few of them have catastrophic diseases of one sort or another as well.

I think most would describe Mew-Genics as a cross between The Sims and Pokemon with a sprinkling of Animal Crossing and a dash of Tamagotchi , but at its core the game really isn’t like anything we’ve seen before.

I suppose it’s only fitting that, just as one of the holliest, jolliest, holiest of holidays begins to descend upon us, we’ve suddenly struck a blood-and-pus-spewing vein of Binding of Isaac news. First there was a completely mad (in a good way) looking Team Fortress 2 mod, and now Edmund McMillen himself has reclaimed the stage to present a hellish heap of details about the upcoming Binding of Isaac remake. In short, Nicalis – they of the recent Cave Story console remakes and NightSky – are handling the heavy lifting while McMillen cracks the whip from the lead designer nightmare throne. Non-Flash graphics, local co-op, and a Wrath-of-the-Lamb-sized expansion are the standout features, but it wouldn’t be Binding of Isaac without a million-billion other gleefully gruesome things. And on that front, McMillen and Nicalis intend to deliver.

Sometimes, modding is a delicate, subtle art – its inspirations many and nuanced, and its results unexpectedly evocative. It’s akin to the flap of a butterfly’s wings – barely even a whisper on the wind, yet capable of breathing pollen-dappled life into countless fields and genres. Other times, modding’s about taking one crazy and thing and cramming it into another crazy thing to make a third, orders of magnitude crazier thing. Which brings us to a completely insane Binding of Isaac mod for Team Fortress 2. The objective, so far as I can tell, is to do normal TF2 stuff (teamwork, friendship, murder) while also dealing with an onslaught of decidedly un-bound bosses. It looks completely wild. Traverse the break’s treacherous dungeons to check it out.

Returning from holiday has filled me with anxiety. If I deem the fact that Team Meat are developing a game about cats to be newsworthy, I fear that one of the blustering colonels who make up 42% of RPS’ readership will choke indignantly on his morning brandy and then send me a missive of terrible indignation. “Sir, your recent declaration that the announcement of Team Meat’s Mew-Genics is in any way ‘new’ cuts me to the quick. Captains Grayson, Meer, Rossignol and Walker have all written twenty thousand word dissertations regarding the wider cultural significance of felines, ludology and genetic manipulation. I bid you good day.” Oh, Colonel Breeches, settle your moustaches and just read the announcement below.

No, no, it’s not what it sounds like. Edmund McMillen hasn’t suddenly decided to beat the record for fastest “HD” remake treatment ever. This remake, to hear McMillen tell it, is very, very necessary. In short, have you ever noticed how Binding of Isaac occasionally chugs even on machines powered by blazing tech and unholy sacrifices to Shan’thulex, bloodlord of the night (and a small chain of mom ‘n’ pop PC hardware stores)? Well, that’s because it runs on Flash, and McMillen thinks it’s high-time that changed. That, however, is only the beginning of this remake.

This is quite bad for me personally. Binding of Isaac, you see, unhinged one of its many grotesque orifices and devoured my life last year. The number of hours I sank into Edmund McMillen’s blood-sweat-tear-and-excrement-based roguelike could be described as substantial. Conversely, activities that failed to receive that designation during a similar timeframe include eating, sleeping, and not being presumed dead by most of my friends and family members. So, while you say hello to Binding of Isaac’s Wrath of the Lamb downloadable expansion, I say goodbye. Probably forever.

I’ve got a mighty fine idea. Why not point a camera at a bunch of creative sorts and let them speak their minds? That’s how Indie Game: The Movie was made, although I suspect editing the hundreds of hours of footage into something watchable, fascinating and entertaining was the hard part. Perhaps that’s why Swirsky and Pajot’s film won World Cinema Documentary Editing Award at Sundance 2012. Everyone will be able to watch it soon, or at least anyone near an internet connection, as it will be available as a downloadable purchase on June 12th. What’s most intriguing about this is that one of the download services carrying the film will be Steam. This leads to the obvious questions: will every film in the world soon be available on Steam and will Episode Three be a cinemovie?

Despite the constant flow of new games to try, be they the sort of grand strategy that devours weeks or tiny flights of fancy, there are some games more than a fortnight old that I still find time to play. The Binding of Isaac is one. Short, decidedly sour and extremely attentive to my desire for carefully controlled randomisation and odd loot, every journey into the basement has something to offer. We knew an expansion was on its way and now we know it’ll be here on May 28th. According to the trailer, it’ll also contain ‘more’ of just about everything.

Who wants a long look into the mind behind The Binding of Isaac? Edmund McMillen recently spoke with design3, a web portal offering education and advice for game developers, and the resulting conversation is wide-ranging, fascinating and what I believe must be referred to as ‘refreshingly’ honest. That’s as honest as the country pub with the shaded garden serving up the first beer of a summertime Friday evening after a day of fielding calls in a thimble-sized office cubicle. The interview runs for an hour and a half but is certainly worth sticking with if you have an interest in Ed and his games, the indie scene, making games of your own or the wider industry. They cover it all.

I still haven’t done everything there is to do in The Binding of Isaac and it’s one of the few games that I’ll happily revisit for achievements and items. I want every item and I want to kill every boss with every character. That’s why the news of an expansion fills me with pleasure and anxiety, although not in equal measure. The anxiety is tiny and might just be the standard white noise of dread that hums in my ears whenever I’m awake. The pleasure is immense. I always hoped Isaac would continue to sprout growths and the free Halloween update was ace. The next will require a small payment – it’s going by the name The Wrath of the Lamb and according to Edmund, it adds about 50% new content. More details below.

Hullo! I used to write on this site, and then I got very tired. I sleep most the day now. It’s nice. When I’m sleeping, I get my nurse to play podcasts. This is my favourite games podcast in ages. Roguelike Radio is a Roguelike-centric podcast which plays a different one every couple of weeks and does a show about it. In this case, however, they’ve got Edmund McMillen on to talk about Binding of Isaac. And it’s so brilliant, I almost managed to stand up. But my legs failed, and I was left sprawling hopelessly on the floor. I wish I had working legs and a functioning penis, though that’s probably too much information. But honestly, unless my critical faculties are as rusty as my cog-powered cock, this is a genuinely brilliant, wide-ranging interview about McMillen’s latest. Go listen! Meanwhile, I’m going to have a little lie down. Bye!

The most common complaint about The Binding of Isaac is that it doesn’t contain enough horrid things in it, being a rather delicate cocktail of blood, tears and poo. Thankfully, the Halloween update, which will automatically apply itself to Steam copies of the game by noon PST today, adds “20% more evil”. It says so in the trailer, which is gibbering madly in the sulfurous depths below, along with some details on what that extra evil is composed of, including new playable character Eve.

The Binding of Isaac, Ed McMillen and Florian Himsl’s icky, ingenious Zeldalike now benefits from an online demo, hosted in the browser-based medium of Flash at Newgrounds.

It only includes two areas of the game and a few of the items and foes, so may struggle to convey the randomly-generated wonder/horror of this shooter/roleplayer/matricide curio, but if you’re still confused about exactly what this game is, this will give you a broad sense of it.